This article discusses why I prefer practicing with gulls, and shares an extensive selection of new images recently captured at 40 Mile Creek in Grimsby.

Some photographers seem to view gulls as nothing more than a nuisance… and they don’t bother trying to photograph them at all. From my perspective, of all of the bird species I could choose to photograph in-flight, it is difficult for me to identify better practice birds than gulls.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

Gulls are plentiful.

While gulls do migrate to warmer climates, we can often find gulls in Southern Ontario for a good part of the year. This makes them one of the most common birds in our area.

Gulls also tend to hang around with each other along shorelines, around piers, and other areas with good water access. So, if someone wants to get some practice photographing birds-in-flight, there is often a readily available supply of gulls.

Gulls are often acclimatized to people.

In many areas gulls have grown accustomed to being around people, which can allow us to get in somewhat closer to the birds.  Of course, this can be a nuisance at times if the birds have been fed by humans.

One of my favourite spots for practicing with gulls is at the harbour area at 40 Mile Creek. At this location the gulls will come in fairly close to humans if being fed by them. Otherwise they tend to keep a reasonable distance.

There is usually a good supply of small, bait fish in the harbour that provides a more natural source of nutrition… and tends to keep the gulls in the area to feed.

Being acclimatized to people to at least some extent, allows photographers to get in reasonably close to subject birds. This can expand the skill sets that a photographer is trying to improve through practicing with gulls. As well as give photographers multiple opportunities to practice specific skills.

Gulls can be aerobatic flyers.

Unlike ducks and geese that often fly in predictable paths with only nominal abrupt changes in direction, gulls can be quite aerobatic flyers. This makes them ideal subjects to practice eye/hand coordination.

These difference in flying patterns are even more pronounced when gulls come into land on water, as they often make abrupt banking turns before landing.  They will also execute their landing manoeuvres from a range of different heights and approach angles. This encourages us to use our observational skills, and can challenge our eye/hand coordination.

Gulls often land in crowded spots.

While it is a fairly simple task to photograph a bird landing when it is well separated from other birds, landing in a crowded spot presents some additional challenges. Acquiring focus can be more difficult, as can tracking with the bird as it comes in to land.

For example, let’s have a look at three consecutive frames of a gull coming into land with a number of other birds in close proximity.

During my most recent visit to 40 Mile Creek, my practicing with gulls session specifically focused on birds coming in to land. Some with unobstructed approaches, and others when landing in a crowded spot.

I practiced adjusting my technique with these two scenarios, acquiring initial focus earlier on gulls coming in with unobstructed flight paths.

I would wait longer to acquire initial focus on gulls coming in to land amongst other birds, and also put more reliance on the audible affirmation emitted by my camera, when auto-focus had been acquired. I would also tend to use a shorter duration image burst in this scenario.

Learning to photograph gulls landing in a crowded spot can assist us when capturing images of other species in similar situations.

Gulls can be aggressive with each other.

It is very common for fights and chases to break out when a lot of gulls are in close proximity. Open beak displays are also very common and can add drama and variety to practice images.

Gulls exhibit a wide range of behaviours.

Gulls can be terrific subjects for photographers wanting to enhance their observation skills. We can observe them doing mid-air shakes to rid their feathers of water.

Or rise up from the surface of the water when beginning a short dive to hunt for small fish.

We can capture them in mid-air part way through making a shallow dive.

Some gulls will thrust themselves forward along the surface of the water when trying to catch a small fish… and create an interesting water trail for our resulting images.

Gulls can offer us interesting poses.

As gulls come in to land their bodies and wings can look somewhat contorted… and offer us interesting poses to photograph.

At other times they can give us the opportunity to practice precise moment captures when one webbed foot is just touching the surface of the water.

Or just a fraction of a second before a gull touches down as it is landing along a shoreline.

Some species have beautifully detailed feathers.

Which can add some drama to a landing photograph.

There may even be instances when we can capture gulls in close proximity demonstrating similar behaviours.

We can still be creative with common birds.

Even though gulls are one of the most common of birds, we still have the opportunity to be creative with them. For example, gulls can help create some interesting water movement in our photographs as we can see in the image above.

Over the years I’ve observed that some of the most interesting water splashes occur when a gull lands in very shallow water close to shore… or on a submerged sand bar… and disturbs the surface of the water with its feet.

The image above is my favourite one from my recent practicing with gulls visit at 40 Mile Creek. We could look at this photograph as ‘just another a gull’ like so many others. But to my eye… the splash of water caused by its left leg and foot motion… turns this image into something special.

Keepers are irrelevant to me.

When I’m out practicing with gulls, keepers are irrelevant to me. I’m out with my camera to improve specific skills like eye/hand coordination and shutter release timing. Whether I’m able to get any keeper images or not… is of no concern to me. If I do get some keepers… they’re an unexpected bonus. The benefit of this mental approach is a feeling of complete freedom. I can try to capture an image of anything that catches my eye… without any pressure of that attempt having to be successful.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld with the camera equipment  noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from RAW files using my standard process in post. This is the 1,418 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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